NAFTA at 20

Twenty years ago, Canada, Mexico and the United States entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement. As he signed the bill implementing NAFTA, President Bill Clinton declared: “I believe we have made a decision now that will permit us to create an economic order in the world that will promote more growth, more equality, better preservation of the environment and a greater possibility of world peace.” Unfortunately, the enduring result of NAFTA has been just the opposite: stagnant wages, increasing inequality and weakened social protections in all three countries.